Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

My Little Pretty!

Photos taken by Jeff Graham on Morris Avenue of My Little Pretty in October. Love them all!!

Pretty Princess to Pretty Player

Blair and her cousins, Kailyn and Ansley, got all dolled up in tiaras, sashes and jewels last weekend. They all three looked cute as pie! The same weekend Blair had a soccer game that she scored 5 goals. She was so excited and we were as well. Here are a few pics from our fun weekend.

It's Great to be a Tennessee Vol!

Go Vols!

It's that time again....Soccer

Today was our second practice for the season. Again, Blair did fantastic! Her Daddy and I both are so proud of her and cannot wait to see how well she does this year. Her team this year is the Little Lions. We received uniforms today and guess what colors they turned out to be? Orange, Blue and White just like the Lady Vols of Tennessee. My husband is thrilled! It was so funny to hear some of the parents around us talking about sitting this season out so they did not have to put their child in those Tennessee colors. Check out the pictures of my Little Lion!

First Day of School

See this sweet girl? Well, she attended her first day of school as a Kindergartner today.
She had a great day today and was so excited that she was given a homework assignment.

Boy that will change really soon! She did come home with a good report from her teacher and a smile on her face. I cannot wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

Back to School

Blair starts K5 tomorrow. She is so excited and I must admit, I too am excited for her. Her backpack is packed with all of the necessities, her first day of school outfit is neatly laid out ready for her and the camera is ready to take many pictures. Tomorrow should be a fun day for her and I cannot wait to pick her up from school to hear all about her first day.

Blair's new backpack.
Blair modeling her new backpack before bedtime.

Room Redo, Lake and Program

It has been a while since I last updated. So I wanted to let you know some of what we have been up to lately. I promised Blair several months ago a new bed for sleeping in her own bedroom, so I had to deliver. She and I went shopping and she picked out what she wanted (with a little help from me) at Rooms to go, a white daybed with a trundle. I found the cutest chair in the store so I threw that in the purchase as well. Of course with a new bed comes a room redo. I really should invest in Hobby Lobby stock. I think I bought everything I possibly could at this store for a pink and black bedroom and bathroom. I love her new bedroom and so does she. All we have left to do in her room is window treatments and then we can call it complete.

Blair has been in summer camp at GFBC since June. Last week all of the kids participated in a summer concert to show all of the parents what they had been working on in music class for the summer. The 4/5 year old classes were too stinking cute. They did an awesome job singing and dancing.

Blair with buddies, Ella and Reagan.

Want to know where we have been spending every minute possible this summer, Smith Lake. We cannot get enough of that place. I have loved the time we have spent with family and friends. I have loved watching my sweet little one master tubing, surfing with her daddy and skiing. I have loved watching my husband's excitement to be back on the water... skiing, wake boarding and surfing. I even mastered surfing and wake boarding this weekend. I am pretty proud of myself!

The loves of my life!

We have been super busy this week. We spent some time with my sister and brother-in-law, Rebecca and Dallas before they headed back to Germany. We loved what time we were able to spend with them and they looked great. We are sad that we will miss the arrival of Norah Belle in September. We love you guys!

The stomach bug struck our house this week as well. Blair was sick from Wednesday night until Friday with the bug. Thankfully it did not take her long to bounce back. On Saturday morning she and I went to the field for soccer try-outs while her daddy had to work. She did great! I cannot wait to see her again this year in action. Afterwards, we attended one of her friend's birthday swim party. She had a great time and besides the burning heat, I enjoyed it too. After the party, we headed to the lake with some of our sweet neighbors and enjoyed playing until late in the evening.

Like Father, Like Daughter

We spent another fabulous weekend at the lake. Take a look at what my sweet 5 year old accomplished this weekend. Chris plans to have her wake boarding by the end of summer. We are both so proud of our little princess. Go Blair!

Back to Boating

I have one happy husband and little girl. Chris got the boat he wanted and Blair found a love for tubing and boating. This past weekend we have been on Smith Lake every opportunity we could find. So, here are some pictures to show what we have been up to over the weekend.

Our new boat
Blair's first time on the tube. She is a natural!

Blair and Daddy

Love that smile!

Candy Land

I have been planning for the past year to throw Blair a Candy Land Birthday Party for her 5th Birthday. I am a planner and a thrifty shopper so I plan way in advance. I decided to throw her a party at our home and outside, against my husband's wishes. I planned to decorate all around the house like a giant Candy Land board game. The inside of our basement was converted to a Candy Land Candy Buffet where the kids and parents could cool off but luckily for us, the storms had cooled it off enough that we did not need a place to retreat for a cool break, just some good ice cream, cake and candy. I must say, summertime outside parties are unpredictable with weather but in the end it worked out perfect.

The morning started off hot and humid and just about the time all of the decorations had been placed it started raining. So, we all gathered the items that would ruin in the rain and placed them back in the house. What the rain did not get, the wind did. By the time the storms finished and the skies cleared, we had about 45 minutes to set everything back up before the party started. Thankfully I had plenty of family at the house to take a station and set everything back up in the 77 degree weather instead of the 110 degree weather.

The party was perfect with perfect weather and wonderful friends, family and neighbors. We had about 70 people at Blair's party with 31 of those being kids. I do not know who had a better time, Blair or her Mommy and Daddy.

Our Sweet Birthday Girl!

My sweet sister, Stacy, made this cute Candy Land sign for the Candy Buffet entrance.

Inside the wagon I placed several containers of bubbles for the kids to play with. I found ice cream cone bubbles in vanilla and chocolate flavors along with Popsicle bubbles in strawberry, chocolate and banana flavors to go along with our theme. Not only did the bubbles look cute, they smelled just like the real thing.

The gingerbread and Candy Land sign started the party off at the top of the driveway. Of course we had to make gingerbread girls along with the gingerbread men.

The next stop along the pathway to Candy Land was The Gingerbread Tree. I made candies for the tree out of paper lanterns and cellophane. They looked adorable in the trees! I placed gingerbread men and women around the area of the Gingerbread Tree. You know I had to make a Tennessee Gingerbread Girl for my husband. She was front and center.

More of the Candy Land pathway. I bought Hobby Lobby out of the foam squares to place around the house for the pathway. I also bought letters from Hobby Lobby that Blair and I painted to spell Candy Land. I think we did very well with the letters. I rented a Birthday Cake bouncer that the kids seemed to enjoy. It was really cute!

The Chocolate Swamp was the next station. I used one of Blair's tents and draped brown sheets over the tent to look like Gloppy and the Chocolate Swamp. I found the two pillows at a yard sale for $1 that I thought would be perfect for the swamp. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Next up, Peanut Acres. I cut out of brown construction paper peanuts that I used for the sign and along the house. I also sprinkled peanuts all around the house for the Peanut Acres affect.

Here comes Lolly and Lollipop Woods. I found some of the cling on Candy Land characters online and purchased them for signs to use at the different stations.

Blair's Gigi made about 25 lollipops for Lollipop Woods. They are a bit wind blown from the storm but still held up pretty well. I placed the lollipops around the swing set. Thanks Gigi!

Welcome to Gumdrop Mountains! I bought about 30 different sand buckets and pulled the handle and shovel off of the buckets and placed upside down for gumdrops. I also sprinkled glitter all over the buckets to give them the sugar coating as you would see on a gumdrop.

It's Mr. Mint!

Peppermint Forest - this was the first station set-up for the party. Boy did we get some looks from the neighbors setting up this area. I bought the candy on the tree at Hobby Lobby and the other Peppermint decorations came from Party City (80% off sale). It looked really cute. Chris was a little afraid I would leave this one up. lol

Next Stop, Snow Flake Lake! I purchased paper snowflakes from Oriental Trader and Blair's Gigi put them all on stakes for us to stick in the ground. I also purchased plastic snowflakes to throw around on the ground. I rented a blue water slide for the kids to enjoy as part of Snow Flake Lake. Not sure if the kids or the Daddies had more fun on the slide!

Candy Castle was at the end of the game board. I found this great gingerbread house cut out online at Shindigz. It was perfect for the Candy Castle ending.

My mom and I decorated inside and out (thanks mom). Here is one of the tables from the party. I tried to make each table reflect a different station on the game board. I filled the bucket full of peanuts as in Peanut Acres.

This table had the gumdrop tree and gingerbread house placed so colorful and cute! My sister made the Gingerbread house for the event. It turned out super cute!

This was the chocolate table center piece. It consisted of different chocolates placed in the middle of the table.

Peppermint Center Piece Table.

Lollipop Center Piece. I had so much fun making the different lollipop centerpieces!

This is the inside of the basement that we converted into the Candy Buffet. It looked precious!

I found really cute plastic cupcake plates at the Dollar Tree for 25 cents each (I bought 52). I let the kids take the plates home as part of their treat bag. I placed another really cute lollipop arrangement at the start of the table to begin the Candy Express. I made labels for each item placed on the table with ribbon. The candy items for table one consisted of peppermints, small pixie stix, twizzlers, smarties, air heads, cheeseballs, starbursts, chocolate bar variety, skittles, large pixie stix, gummy candies, rice crispy treats and a blow pop tree (I replenished the tree 3 times before the party thanks to my husband).

Candy Buffet table two consisted of nerds, peach rings, sugar cookies, gummy bears, laffy taffy ropes, tootsie rolls, chip variety, bubble gum, peanuts, sour straws, ring pops, peanut m&ms and
gumdrops.

Blair's Grandmother made this wonderful Candy Land Cake. She made it look just like the board game. It looked and tasted amazing!

We also included an ice cream bar. You cannot have a party without ice cream! We served vanilla, chocolate, strawberry or cookies and cream. I found at Hobby Lobby (on sale) the acrylic pink and green ice cream cone cups that I purchased for the party. They are super cute! The cupcake on the front of the bar was made by Blair's K4 class. It had the name of each child with their finger print and a gemstone. It was too cute not to use.

Blair getting ready to blow out the candles.

Happy 5th Birthday Sweet Girl!
Each child took home a cupcake plate, bags of candy from the candy buffet (and I still have a ton of candy left over) and of course a new toothbrush.

Present Time

Blair blowing chocolate ice cream bubbles.

Blair and Daddy going down the water slide (also known as Snow Flake Lake).

Thanks to all that helped make this party a success. I could not have pulled this off without your help. Now that this party is over with, I am ready to being planning for next year's party,

any ideas?

Happy 5th Birthday, Blair!